In the Human World

a camp in the wood

All around the camp there was a crawling activity, with women cooking and men taking care of the armies and armatures.

"Look!" a boy yelled suddenly, pointing something outside the camp.

As all the presents turned to look in the direction the boy was showing and a lot of jaws fell, eyes went wide and a lot of giggles rose from the girls while a group of ethereal young men and ladies was saw riding towards them, stopping at the limit of the camp and dismounting.

The ladies were able to dismounted alone, surprising the camp people, then the Prince and his courts went towards the new comers and the Prince embraced one of the young man and the girl at his side which didn't seems too happy but kindly replied.

"Who are?" a little girl asked to her mother.
"Elves, honey" replied the woman "ethereal creatures of the woods"

"Speaking of the woods people" said a man near them.

They all turned again to look where he has nodded and a smile ran on many faces as they spotted the woods people, the secret members of the rebels against the usurper prince, silently reaching the camp, melting among the camp people and simply becoming unnoticed.

All but one.

He was tall, muscular but thin with blond hair cut short, a hood on his head and was looking with sparkling green eyes to the elves, making the the camp people turned to look again at the elves and saw that many elves had turned to look at the hood man and smiled.

The prince and his fellows turned to see what has caught their guests attentions making fear immediately run through the camp people which turned to look at the hood man.

But he wasn't nowhere...

Before anyone could even think about speaking, a sound of paws, running paws, reached the camp making again all the present turning toward the source and frozen.

Even if many knew that they would come, none had really believe it and the view was really breathtaking, much more than the elves' coming.

On one side of the camp a group of the most strange creatures any human had never see was ridding towards them, onto amazing mounts too.

Two meters tall wolf were running towards them, ride by creatures which resembled cats but were tall as a man if not more.

They all stopped near the elves and dismounted from their rides.

The first to dismount were a silver tabby and a black and golden queen which went near the prince, the silver tom nodding to the prince as the female smiling.

Then gasps of surprises ran on all the camp when, just behind the first couple a second dismounted, showing a tall dark and golden maned tom, who slipped down from his wolf and patted him, making the humans girls giggling and smiling at him helplessly, but who caught all the camp's attentions was the female at his side, dressed into a green leaf gown, who lowered her hood disclosing she was an human girl, visibly pregnant, indeed beautiful, with dark long hair and soft blue eyes sparkling with happiness and sweetness, toward who the maned tom hold a paw making her smile while picking it.

"Who they are, mummy?" asked a girl, looking amazed to the cat people.

Her mother wasn't able to answer her but one of the wooden men, a large, muscular and tall man answered for her.

"The Jellicles, my dear child" he replied.

The girl and a lot of the children looked at him while many adult recognized him as the second in command of the wooden people, who shared the name with the usurper prince.

"And what are the Jellicles?" asked a boy

"They are like Elves, magical creatures" the man replied.

"They are gorgeous" said a teen girl, making a lot of the other girls giggling again.

"And powerful" added a teen boy admiring them.

"Yes they are all that and much more also" said a voice from behind them making all the presents turn to face the hooded man of before.

"What do you mean?" asked a smith looking up from his work.

"That they will be our last hope, soon or later" the man replied then before someone could speak again, he nodded to the big man to follow while giving the children some golden money from his pocket.

"Go and buy some candy for you and your friends" he told them before leaving with his fellow, leaving some gold even to an old beggar making him smile.

Many "God bless him" were whispered by the surrounding people while he melt into the crows.

Munkustrap smiled having see, with the corner of his eyes, the wooden people dealing with the camp people, then he turned, with a sigh, toward the noblemen he was facing.

Aisha was at his side and gave him a quick look that mean a lot to him, they both didn't like that Prince...they had knew he wasn't the right ruler, that was his brother, but he was acting as while his brother was away.

To Munkustrap he had something that remember him of Macavity but also something of the bowing goblin of King Jareth's Labyrinth. He was a very curious and strange mix...but in some way Munkustrap could see he could be a good ruler too, he had only to come at peace with his being the second born and admit his love for his brother.

"Shall we go?" the Prince asked elegantly showing the way with his hand.

Munkustrap shook himself back to the reality and nodded, offering his paw to Demeter and looking back to see if the others were ready.

Aisha took Elia's harm and nodded looking deeply to the Prince and the noblemen and noblewomen around him, making some of them shivering under her powerful gaze.

Marguerita and Tugger were behind them, holding Misto by his paws, making him jumping in the air and giggling. Munkustrap smiled at them and looked up to meed his own sister, Misto's mother, who was looking amused at the scene with Alonzo, Alia and her boyfriend Irei, a dark haired elf with some oriental feature. Behind them Jenny took Skimble's arm who offered the other to Jellylorum who was next to him and alone, having Old Deuteronomy and the other two consorts to stay back in order to try to stop a war between Genghis and the Siamese's tribes.

Other four elves, dressed into green leaf pants or gowns, and four jellices, with Rumple among them, approached and completed their group.

They all follow the humans toward an high platform, covered by a rich canopy, with a lot of seats and six thrones on it, towards which the Prince and his dame walked inviting Munkustrap with Demeter and Aisha with Elia to follow and take the other four thrones.

When all the entourage and the guests have sat, a procession of men dressed in armor or as simply archers walked in front of them, on the arena's ground.

"This is the Royal Gallery" said the Prince looking at the crow of people marching under the platform "from here we will have the most wonderful view on the games"

He had speak with a lot of pride so Munkustrap nodded and smiled to him, showing appreciations for his showed kindness, even if he was a bit perplex about what kind of games they will go to see with all the people masked with armor, because the men parading under the platform had to be the athletes performing the games...or not?

Then a men, tall, muscular with a black beard and long dark hairs, knelt in front of them and looked up to the Prince.

Something in his gaze made both Munkustrap and Aisha shivered but they managed to not show it and just looked curiously at the man knelt.

"Stand up, Sheriff of Nottingham" the Prince told him with a proud smile "and meet our guests"

The man stood up and looked at the newcomers with a neutral gaze which didn't fool Munkustrap who was able to detect a glimpse of disgust and superiority in it.

Munkustrap shared a glare with Aisha and her eyes told him she had catch the same impression, then Demeter's hand gently touched his arm making him turning to look at her. She smiled at him and her emerald eyes told him much more than words, and he known she was right, he had to pass over and didn't bore about that Sheriff, he would not be a problem to them...

The Sheriff bowed and turned to face the public and the armed men gathered in front of the platform.
"Lets the game begin!" he said "the winner of the games will have the privilege to choose the Queen of Beauty and Love, among the Ladies present here today, who will be honored at the feast the Noble Prince John will offer tonight"

The crow rejoiced at the news, even if most of them, Munkustrap was sure, will not be invited to the party...humans were very strange... the thing that most surprised Munkustrap and his friends was the division into poor people and rich people...it was so unfair, considering that they have all the resource to be all well at the same level! But this would not be the last thing to surprise them.

As the games went on, they became more and more violent and warlike, startling the guests.

The last game was probability the most violent game they had seen in their long life, or at least one of the most violent.

The knights lances bumped against their opponents chest and one of them was shoot out the saddle at which the Prince and his advisers laughed as the threw knight couldn't stand up.

While the helpers ran to help the knight, the Prince took a cup of vine and drank, turning to his guests, on his right sat the Elven Prince and Princess with their court on the nearby tribune while on his left sat the Jellicles Prince and Princess, with the young Prince and his mate, the human Jellicle princess, just behind; the rest of the Jellicles was sitting near them, on a specular tribune to the elves one.

"Do you enjoy yourself?!" the Prince asked to the two High Princes.

"I'm sorry, my lord" replied Munkustrap, making the Prince rose an eyebrow "we are not used to that type of show"

"Really?" he asked.

"We couldn't understand why hurt a person could be funny or amusing" added the elven prince Elia

Ok I'm back! This time the Jellicles are traveling among us...have you guess in which time and which book we are? Yes, book... I'm getting our Jellicles in a very popular and quite old book (and story...) who will guess what is? I can tell you they will soon meet very brave and generous people!

Soon on FanFiction:

The chosen Queen of Love and Beauty stepped forward to crown him, she removes his helmet and all the crow hold their breaths as once. Under the surprised eyes of the Jellicles and Elves the Disinherited Knight's identity is revealed and the young man, with blond hairs and blue eyes that was now facing a very pale Queen, must be someone all the humans know well and somehow didn't believe to be possible for him to be there.

Munkustrap couldn't tell if they were happy, shocked or angry at him, but he could see that the Lady in front of the knelt knight was deeply happy, shocked, confused but seriously in love with him. Then all went worst as the knight paled and went limp at the Lady's feat